A computer by itself, no matter how programmed can tell whether a prediction derived from scientific hypotheses is empirically true or not. One must experiment, measure and observe to see if the prediction matches the state of the world.

I fail to see what the publishing problem is. There is nothing stopping a regional club being formed and publishing occurring on that new fangled device called the internet. That after all is the model used with print in the 17th century for many of today's hallowed institutions. Today's nouveau club meetings can be by video conference, whats the problem

For reasons that are not entirely clear, my earlier comment didn't post. Here's a second try.

Israel is a Middle Eastern state, and it is at the forefront of scientific research and technology. It excels at the "empirical positivism" that has been so resoundingly successful in advancing human knowledge. Israel's scientists have no trouble gaining access to top-notch top journals. Israel has managed to do major science, and produce leading-edge, globally significant technology companies without the massive revenue provided by oil exports that many Arab states enjoy. Israeli scientists do this in a country in which English is not the first language of its citizens, even though most speak and write the global lingua franca.

So the question researchers in the Arab world might want to look into and fully understand is this: what is Israel doing so well that can't be reproduced in Arab states? Why is it that hundreds of billions of dollars from oil exports, which have flowed for decades, has failed to produce a science-based research capability in Arab states, while a state denied this ocean of funding -- i.e., Israel -- finds itself at the forefront of scientific research?

Decrying some perceived slight from Western (American) academic journals because they fail to properly value "qualitative" research -- whatever that is -- is not going to advance the research agenda in the "Middle East."

Israel, for tragic reasons, received brilliant refugees as well as some Zionist Anglo-American savants of the highest caliber. Still, it suffered a huge brain drain because of the harsh economic circumstances and military threat pre-'67.
The really strange thing about Israel is the way its military has nurtured intellectual talent. Instead of being a drain on the nation, the Army has boosted Knowledge based economic growth. Abu Dabhi Research Institutions may be able to emulate this because it does have a lot of very talented people but, like Israel, they have to get rid of the hierarchical mindset and encourage young people in their early twenties, not reward senile professors or stupid careerists as happens in countries like India.
One big problem is that it is tempting for 'Third World' academics to concentrate on worthless Identity politics so as to get token appreciation and citation in the West. In India, Vandana Siva got prominence though she knew nothing about agronomy whereas the good Indian agronomists- e.g. Pandurang Khankoje in the Thirties and Forties but now also Sanjaya Rajarama who won the World Food Prize in 2014 achieved their results in far away Mexico. India is an agricultural country but the native work is ignored by the bureaucrats while the fashionable Amartya Sen- whose work causes famines- gets the Nobel Prize and has ten thousand imitators all producing worthless nonsense.
Israel succeeded because smart young people were encouraged to solve problems facing the small beleagured nation. This gave them self-confidence and curtailed the jealousy of the senile professors. It also meant that the attitude to 'pure' Math or Science was of an 'entrepreneurial' not scholastic kind- i.e. researchers approach 'pure' theory in an eclectic manner. There are some very foolish Israeli Sociologists and Ethnographers and so on- but they can always export their idiots and, in any case, the sabra mentality has little tolerance for opinionated eggheads. India also exports its idiots but the problem is kids back home feel they have to imitate them to similarly escape. Unfortunately, people from Islamic or Asian Religions are still a little too respectful to senile Professors and retain a hierarchical mindset.
One final point- I notice that Israeli or Western post-grads don't fear their professors will steal or bury their ideas. In the 'East', however, this is a big fear. The same thing is true of in-firm innovation. Young people feel suffocated and don't trust their superiors. There are exceptions. Some Govt. sponsored programs have a powerful boss who makes sure talent is rewarded. Then 'miracles' do happen and 'empirical evidence' becomes available in a manner which does get acknowledged in Western journals.
However, the West's knowledge hegemony won't last for ever.
I don't know what the author means by a 'new brain drain' away from 'qualitative' work. So far as am aware, all such work is bogus and should be left to charlatans who write books featuring 'Black Swan' in the title.
Ethnography is another word for a stupidity. Case-studies are fodder for magazine articles. Participatory surveys are either empirical or imaginary. What the author calls 'B and C level journals' are either expressions of a careerist availability cascade or vanity publications simply.
No doubt there is a brain drain away from useful work to worthless careerist scholasticism but the only way to fix that problem is to stop paying for it.
The Olympic games privileges empirical markers of atheletic excellence but so too does the Paralympics. We may well consider it deeply unfair that there is no Parnassus prize for 'qualitative' or 'ethnographically informed' bodily excellence such that an obese and lazy fellow like me can be declared the winner of a triathlon equal in value to the Olympic Triathlon. However, the rest of the world does not share our dismay at this outcome.

Indeed, American science itself is a European spin off. Colonists needed to survey and measure as much as they could to survive and see their colonial projects survive. America, Australia, Canada and Israel are all similar in this respect.

Could it be because Israel have invested in a proper data infrastructure? That it is itself a society that was span off European science? And that it enjoys an unparalleled integration in the American scientific system? Obviously, in this respect it is neither Middle Eastern nor a developing country.

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